Economic Development and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2019

The amendments follow a review of the Economic Development Act (ED Act) which focussed on planning and development assessment, including how the ED Act interacts with other Acts.

The amendments will improve existing processes to help deliver government priorities, including delivery of the Cross River Rail and other projects aimed at generating growth and job opportunities across the state.

Certain provisions came into effect immediately. Other provisions (mainly those relating to development assessment) will commence on a future date (to be announced) to allow time to prepare for the changes.

Key amendments

more flexible time frames for planning in priority development areas (PDAs) to respond to new or different circumstances

new ability to make a minor change to the boundary of a PDA in limited circumstances and to make a PDA larger by replacing it with a new PDA following the normal declaration process

improved ability to change back to the Planning Act when an area no longer needs to be in a PDA

a new way of declaring provisional PDAs that involves consultation with the local government and community, including the setting up of a local consultative committee and the opportunity to make submissions on a draft plan

improvements to the PDA development application process to make the steps in the process clearer and allow applications that are not active to lapse

new and updated provisions that are similar to the Planning Act, for example, in relation to development that does not require approval and actions that can be taken if development does not meet the requirements of a PDA development approval

improved interaction between the ED Act and a number of other Acts, such as the Building Act 1975 and Environmental Protection Act 1994, to allow, for example PDA development approvals to be considered when decisions are made under those Acts in the same way as development approvals under the Planning Act are considered.